Streamside
by fabianrutter
Summary: AU: Anubis residents live in the same neighborhood, Streamside. Their town was well known for the string of unsolved murders that had taken place there in the 80's, and the tales were told so many times that it became hard to decipher fact from fiction. Now, thirty years later, things are beginning to unfold. This is more mystery-oriented than ship oriented but there will be ships.


**AU: Anubis residents live in the same neighborhood, Streamside. Their town was well known for the string of unsolved murders that had taken place there in the 80's, and the tales were told so many times that it became hard to decipher fact from fiction. Now, thirty years later, things are beginning to unfold.**

So I originally got the idea for this during my Essay Writing and Writing Culture classes a few months ago, and then I found this old prompt from my Creative Writing class last year. I read through what I'd started to write, and it was rough, but the plot was good and it worked for what I wanted to do. So, here it is: A multi-chapter I say I'm gonna finish and actually try to. Woo!

Constructive criticism is cool. Hope you don't absolutely hate it.

Disclaimer: I don't own House of Anubis.

* * *

They made quite an odd group. Were they out in the open, around other people from school, odd looks would follow in their wake. But, as it stood, they were not out in the open.

The mass of teenagers wandered through the woods, following the winding path to a spooky destination, as these stories tend to go. But to make sense of this, we'd need to back up to earlier in the month.

**_[Earlier in the month]_**

"Fabian, hurry up!" Amber groaned, her foot beating out an angered pattern on the sidewalk as she waited for her step-brother.

"Amber, thirty extra seconds won't kill you."

"You don't know that," she muttered. "I hope you know that I know _exactly_ what you're doing."

"Putting these books in my bag so I won't have to carry them?"

"See, that's what I originally thought," she emphasized as Fabian began to zip his backpack. "But you've done it every single day, in this exact spot! You stand there until..." she paused, glancing toward the doors to the school. At that moment, a girl with long, wavy brown hair emerged. "Ha! Until the new girl walks out!"

"That's ridiculous," Fabian shook his head. "C'mon, let's go."

"What is ridiculous is how red your cheeks are!" Amber quipped.

"They are not," he objected, eyes glued to the pavement as he tried to make his way home. "Amber, let's go home."

"Just a sec," she held out a finger, and in the next second she was gone.

"Amber!" Fabian deflated, seeing the small blonde pop up again in the crowd-this time, next to the new girl. They seemed to be talking, the new girl rather taken aback, but didn't refuse Amber driving her in Fabian's direction.

"This is my brother, Fabian. Well, step-brother. Same thing, to be honest," Amber shrugged. Her mother and Fabian's father were edging on ten years of marriage. The word 'step' left an odd taste in Amber's mouth. Fabian was her brother, and she his sister. That's all there was to it. "Fabian, this is-"

"Nina," he interjected. "I know, we have English together. And French...and History."

"It's nice to hear you talk," Nina allowed a laugh. She turned to Amber and explained, "Fabian's quiet in class. We were partners last week, though, and he did talk a bit."

"He really needs to come out of his shell," Amber shook her head, sighing.

"I am right here," Fabian frowned.

"Oh, sorry-I didn't mean to be rude," Nina trailed off, nervous.

"Oh, no," Fabian stammered. "Not you! You're fine! You're more than fine-oh, I didn't mean it like that-but no! Really, it's just Amber."

"Oh, alright. I'm sorry though, I didn't mean to-"

"No, no, really, it's fine. Oh, god, I cut you off, I'm sorry!"

"It's fine, I don't mind," Nina flushed.

"So, uh..." Fabian scrambled for conversation topics, but he came up empty handed.

"Um..."

"Well..."

"Nina!" Amber experienced near physical pain from listening to their struggle. "What're you doing today after school?"

"Do you mean right now?" Nina raised a brow. "I was just going to walk home..."

"Why don't you walk home with Fabian and I?" Amber suggested. "We live in Streamside. You could come over, if you'd like."

"Oh, I live in Streamside, too!" Nina remarked. "Corsten Lane."

"That's right behind us! We live on Hailing," Fabian said.

"You should definitely walk home with us, then. Would you like to come over?" Amber questioned once more, hoping Nina would agree.

"I don't see why not," she smiled.

Within a minute, a rather nervous Fabian and a considerably flustered Nina were buffered by a thrilled Amber as they made their way down the sidewalk.

* * *

"What do you wanna do today?" Joy asked, sprawled out across Patricia's bed. The afternoon sun glared in her eyes, but she was incapable of willing herself to roll over.

"We could do our English assignment," Mara suggested, pulling her backpack toward her.

"Or," Patricia drawled, "We could hike to the sawmill."

"Why are you so intent on visiting that eerie old mill?" Mara questioned. "Nothing pleasant ever comes from eerie."

"Oh, c'mon Mara!" Joy urged. "It'd be fun! Think of it as an adventure. Remember? We used to have them all the time! The three of us, Amber and Fabian, Mick Campbell, Jerome Clarke and Alfie Lewis."

"And Weeping Willow Jenks used to follow us with a butterfly net looking to catch hedgehogs," Patricia scoffed.

"But we're not eight years old anymore," Mara gnawed on her lip. They hadn't been to the sawmill in almost four years, and with good reason.

The last time they had paid the mill a visit, it had ended in nothing short of a disaster. Since then, the eight of them never got together anymore. They had their own groups: Mara, Joy, and Patricia; Amber, Fabian, and Mick; Jerome and Alfie. Nobody quite knew what Willow got up to, they just suspected she was still the nutty flower child she'd always been growing up. The only friend they ever knew she had was Amelia Pinches, who was a whole different type of odd.

* * *

**A/N**: Well, it's short, but there it is. My computer has been broken for about a month now, so all of this is typed from a tablet. But, with the lack of computer, it makes going on tumblr a lot harder, so I'll probably be found writing more. That's a win, right?


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